Cloud Hidden^[6]

TEA IS AN ACT COMPLETE IN ITS SIMPLICITY.

Tea is a meeting place. The place where we meet nature, we meet each other and we meet ourselves.

As we inhale the scent and drink in the tea, we become informed by this leaf; we are changed by it. We drink in the mountains it was grown in, the sunshine that awakened it and the clouds that rained down on the trees. We meet the farmer that stewarded the forest and the artist that crafted the teaware we use. All come together – the farmer, the potter, the brewer and nature – to produce a transformative bowl of tea.

My journey to tea began somewhat unexpectedly. After writing my thesis on mindful interventions for youth with PTSD and working in West Africa with UNICEF and then in Australia with the Red Cross, I entered the education field in the remote Northern Territory.

I was introducing mindfulness into the classrooms with limited success. This coincided with visiting a Zen Centre in Taiwan to study tea ceremony. Upon returning, we introduced tea ceremony into our schools program with amazing results. I realised that Tea, as a herb, a space and a ceremony, inspires the meditative experience in us.Once students experienced the peaceful mind that is stilled of thoughts, they lose the sense of resistance to meditation – they want to do it. I saw that I had found what I was searching for: a modality to inspire the meditative mind.

I decided to focus my energy on learning this craft, so I left my career and my life to move to Taiwan. After 3 years of living with my teacher, I moved back to Australasia to share tea ceremony. We offer tea in schools, hospices, yoga studios and in a pre-covid world we were looking to build tea specific spaces.

We teach people the simple art of sharing tea in their own lives as a way to connect more deeply with themselves and those around them. We connect the best tea artisans we know – both for tea and teaware – with the West. We source tea from ancient trees that is free of chemicals and grown in harmony with nature. 

We seek to inspire others to explore their inner world through tea and to awaken a deep sense of connection with others. Cloud Hidden encourages us to create a space in our lives to experience our interconnectedness with the world we inhabit. As we look deeply into the tea bowl, we can meet the farmer, bathe in the rivers, watch the clouds, and discover what is hidden within every moment of our lives.

I look forward to sharing tea with you all.

Sam